Book Fair has evolved over two decades, mission remains 'creating a passion for reading'

Alan White / Carroll County Times

Children's books author Judy Schachner, best known for her Skippyjon Jones series, signs copies of her books during the annual Penguin Random House Book Fair at Carroll Community College on Saturday, March 5, 2016.

Children's books author Judy Schachner, best known for her Skippyjon Jones series, signs copies of her books during the annual Penguin Random House Book Fair at Carroll Community College on Saturday, March 5, 2016. (Alan White / Carroll County Times)

The Penguin Random House Book Fair is a March staple in this area, with many thousands of avid readers descending upon Carroll Community College each year to listen to authors’ talks, to bring kids in for engaging activities designed to encourage a love for reading and, of course, to buy books.

It is Carroll Community College’s second-biggest fundraiser each year. “One hundred percent of the proceeds from this event are used for scholarships at Carroll,” school President James Ball said in a news release.

But, two decades ago, the book fair was not a March staple — nor was it a given it would even be a successful event.

“I will personally be interested to see what the interest is in a book fair in Carroll County — to see the interest in buying books and writing books and developing writing talent,” said Susan White-Bowden, a Carroll resident, a former TV news anchor and a member of the Local Authors’ Round Table during the first book fair, on Nov. 15, 1997. “I think we do have people who are interested in writing and reading still.”

And, evidently, still.

In recent years, close to 1,000 people turn out annually for the fair’s kick-off event the day before the actual book fair and then some 4,000 show for the book fair itself.

This year’s kick-off event is set for Friday, March 2, with book sales, a talk with Melanie Benjamin. author of “The Aviator’s Wife,” and two showings of “The LEGO Ninjago Movie.”

The main event takes place on Saturday, March 3 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. with children’s activities — several involving LEGOs — discounted book sales, concessions, a silent auction and a talk with author and illustrator Jon Burgerman about his latest picture book “Rhyme Crime,” among other events.

Back when it started in 1997, the book fair centered mainly around workshops and panels with the “Local Authors’ Round Table” listed as one of the features along with sessions titled “Romance Writers Tell All,” “How to be Published,” “Writing Fiction,” “History Writers: Caretakers of the Past,” and, in a nod to what would evolve into more of the fair’s focus, “How to Motivate Your Child to Read.”

In 2006, at the 10th book fair, Carroll Community College Foundation Executive Director Steven Wantz told the Times that the event had “come to really focus on youth and encouraging family literacy.”

Wantz said last year that the book fair has raised more than $600,000 over its 20 years. According to previous Times reporting, the first fair raised approximately $8,000 but in more recent years that number has climbed past $60,000.

"This is an important fundraiser for us, but when you get down to it, the mission is creating a passion for reading," Wantz told us in 2015. "And if you give a child an opportunity to read a book they might not otherwise have, who knows what that will do to spark an interest in learning and taking off to a new level.”

The book fair traditionally provides free books to kids and has always emphasized activities for kids, such as an annual young writers’ contest and last year’s “Trolls”-themed children’s area that included face painting and a “Trolls” hair station.

The year before that, Westminster resident Alex Whitney brought his two children, Ashlynn and AJ, to the book fair and both took the opportunity to try their hands at the various STEM activities. The activities gave the two Cranberry Station Elementary School students a chance to use creative thinking, he said.

Well-known and local authors coming out has always been a staple and, indeed, many of the authors who have made appearances at the book fair have been writers of children’s books, though many genres have been well-represented.

This year they have Benjamin on Friday and Burgerman on Saturday.

Last year, artist Chris Eliopoulos, who has worked on several popular comic books and illustrated Brad Meltzer’s “Ordinary People Change the World” children’s series, and Stacey Ballis, author of several “foodie novels” and cookbooks were on hand.

In previous years the likes of “Skippyjon Jones” series author Judith Schachner, historical fiction author Kate Alcott, screenwriter Delia Ephron, “Goosebumps” series author R.L. Stine and thriller novelist Steve Berry have made appearances at the book fair.

The book fair changed seasons about a decade ago when the college canceled the fall 2008 event and held it, instead in March 2009. The name was changed from Random House Book Fair to Penguin Random House Book Fair in 2014, reflecting the merger of two publishing giants. And it has taken scores of sponsors and hundreds of volunteers to pull it off each year and make it what it is today.

But while the book fair has grown and evolved over the past 20-plus years, there’s been one constant.